LEADERSHIP AND COORDINATION

Effective ICT work in schools will be the consequence of good leadership and effective coordination. Both are necessary factors for success. ICT is not a subject that can be delegated to an ICT Coordinator. In practice the leadership and coordination roles will complement one another and work so as to seek to drive the school towards a shared vision. Head teachers, curriculum deputies, ICT Coordinators and subject leaders will each demonstrate a leadership role with ICT.
School leaders should seek to drive developments towards a vision of the school as a centre of excellence in using ICT for teaching and learning. The DfES refers to this vision as 'The School of the Future'. The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) describes the 'School of the Future' as the 'E-confident School'.CHARACTERISTICS OF THE E-CONFIDENT SCHOOLHigh levels of staff confidence, competence and leadershipAvailability and access to technical supportRe-engineering teaching, learning and assessment.Leading and managing distributed and concurrent learningEffective application within organisational and management processesCoherent personal learning development, support and access - for all staffSecure, informed professional judgementAppropriate resource allocation to ensure sustainable developmentPupils/students with high levels of ICT capabilitySchool as the community learning and information hub GOOD LEADERSHIP IN ICT (AT ALL LEVELS) WILL BE DEMONSTRATED THROUGH: having a clear understanding about the nature of ICT as a subject, and a learning medium understanding why ICT is potentially the most powerful learning medium yet developed having a clear vision of what the school should achieve with ICT over time being able to demonstrate how investments in ICT are impacting on learning and attainment achieving the balance between teaching ICT skills and applying them to learning knowing the key components to an ICT strategy that must be in place for ICT to succeed.
Effective coordination in ICT will be demonstrated through: managing developments according to the school development plan for ICT maintaining good communication with SMT, heads of department, teachers and technicians identifying solutions to obstacles to ICT developments keeping SMT and teachers aware of key developments in ICT supporting staff development in the use of ICT across subjects evaluating progress in developing ICT and publicising pupils' achievements in using ICT